Trial By Fire
by xXBalorBabeXx
Summary: They had taken plenty of risks in their respective careers... but when the one that sparked things off kicks into overdrive, will this particular risk pay off?
1. Fan Madness

_**A/N: Rachel also appears in Out In The Cold but as a supernatural being.**_

 _ **8/22/15, 30 minutes earlier...**_

" _Oh, damn…" Amanda muttered after she and Finn had gotten ready to head to the Barclays Center for NXT: TakeOver: Brooklyn, Amanda readjusting her Balor Club racerback tank top._

" _What is it, lass?" Finn asked, Amanda pointing out several photographers waiting outside Juliana's Pizzeria, Amanda and Finn deciding to eat dinner there since they already ate breakfast and lunch at the hotel. "Ah… media hounds. Damn vultures." He said._

 _Both valued their privacy and didn't want anyone speculating about them, it was driving them crazy… but they knew that the paparazzi out front weren't the only ones and Finn's rental car, a 2016 Nissan Altima was right in the parking lot._

 _Finn lightly wrapped his right arm around Amanda's shoulders and the two walked outside as_ _the cameras started going off and the questions were being asked because as luck would have it, a TMZ cameraman were there too as Finn tried to shield Amanda from the flashing lights._

 _She had been dealing with a migraine since yesterday that had weakened but not gone away completely… and Finn was worried._

" _Mr. Balor, Miss Cena, what exactly is going on between you two?" The cameraman asked, Finn and Amanda getting in the car and driving off… but then Finn saw that the paparazzi had started following them on motorbikes._

" _They don't give up. How did they even find us anyway?" Amanda responded as Finn sped up and she let out a startled scream._

" _Hang on tight, love." Finn says, cutting in front of an Escalade… which provoked Colin 'Big Cass' Cassady as he was driving it._

" _Watch the fucking road, Balor!" Colin yelled._

 _But neither Finn or Amanda were paying attention to Colin now._

 _Losing the paparazzi took a while but they managed to… and were taking deep breaths to soothe their racing hearts._

" _Did I at any point since this madness started say to lead them on a high speed chase?!" Both heard after a while, seeing William Regal before they got out. "You two could've gotten yourselves and others killed!"_

" _Sorry, Mr. Regal." Both said simultaneously._

" _As long as no one got hurt, I'm accepting your apology. Enzo called, him and his friend wondering what the chaos was about." William responded before leaving._

 _This had started since a photo of Finn and Amanda after The Beast In The East after party had surfaced… and it showed no signs of slowing down._

 _It had started up again earlier when a photo of both leaving a doctor's office a few days ago had surfaced… but again, no one else knew the truth…_

 **Present time…**

"It's getting crazier on the message boards, isn't it?" Finn asked after seeing Amanda with her laptop in her lap.

"You wouldn't believe half these damn comments to the latest rumors." Amanda responded, turning the MacBook Pro to Finn and him seeing them, _"I bet that's not even his kid she's having, the cheating slut!"_ and _"If anything, I bet it's Rollins's spawn or Orton's."_ being a few examples. "Even if we told them the truth, I doubt they'd believe it." She said, closing out the message boards.

She had been cleared off the anticonvulsants and wanted to share that… but the photo of them leaving the doctor's office surfaced and now Amanda felt like the speculation ruined it.

Amanda powered down the laptop and closed it, setting it aside as Finn rested his hands on her shoulders and started to massage them.

"They're a younger generation of fans, have much more access to technology and media outlets… they'll calm down at some point." Finn responded.

"When I was their age, Facebook, TMZ and MySpace were just the start of things then." Amanda replied, grimacing slightly as Finn put a little more pressure into his right hand to get a knot out of her right shoulder. "These younger fans, it's just madness." She said, leaning against Finn after his arms wrapped around her and both unaware of the young angel nearby.

Ariel sometimes watched them… and looked closer as Amanda's eyes widened when Finn whispered something to her.

"You think it would work? No one's done a storyline similar to that since 2004." Amanda responded.

"I think it might… we paint one here with tiny white angel wings on her back and the other with darker wings on his back. Sort of our way of "confirming" things." Finn replied, his right hand resting on both sides of Amanda's stomach for a few seconds.

"You already ran this by Hunter, didn't you?" Amanda asked.

"Back on Wednesday, yes. He thinks it'll work but we've gotta be careful about it." Finn answered, Amanda taking a few seconds and nodding.

"Let's do it." Amanda said, Finn kissing her on her forehead before they stood up.

Once Amanda was dressed in her white and black ring outfit, she stood still as the paint was being applied to her. On her back were the usual wings… on the front were the paintings of the twins as how they were drawn on the paper in the nearby sketchbook.

"Not telling the guys beforehand will set them off, Mandy…" Rachel said as she finished the paint.

"I know but some storylines need to be kept secret before the cameras start, Rache." Amanda responded quietly.

She normally didn't mind risk taking storylines… but she was feeling an entirely different set of nerves this time around.


	2. What They Believe

To say that Kevin Owens was thinking that he was going crazy when he saw the paint of the tiny twins on Amanda's stomach was an understatement. He was a distance away but close enough to where he could hear the conversation between Amanda and Hunter.

"They've already gone insane online, you said how many comments had to be removed?" Amanda responded.

"Thirty-nine and that was just within the span of two hours. Don't worry, we're monitoring them closely." Hunter answered.

"Fans can be very vocal when there's something they disagree with…" Amanda said.

"Co-workers and friends can too." Hunter responded as Kevin walked over.

"So no hitting you tonight?" Kevin asked after looking at Amanda.

"Or for a while, Owens." Amanda answered.

Kevin nodded and walked away, Hunter and Amanda looking at each other.

"It'll work, kiddo." Hunter said, lightly kissing Amanda on her forehead.

Amanda nodded and headed to the locker room and walked in, jumping back slightly when she saw Finn.

"Still gives you jumpscares." Finn said, knowing that the Demon King paint tended to scare Amanda at times… and then Amanda noticed a dove in the corner of the room as she absentmindedly readjusted her ring top, which had padding stitched into it to make the storyline seem more realistic.

"Yeah… it does." Amanda replied, Finn noticing how distracted she seemed. "Somewhere down the line for this storyline, Hunter was talking about putting The Shield back together… our minds are not in the same places they were over a year ago, it wouldn't feel right." She said after he walked over, Finn knowing that Amanda was thinking that putting The Shield back together would cause more chaos.

The white light in the corner of the room caught their attention and Finn immediately covered Amanda's eyes and closed his own as it got brighter… and then faded, Ariel looking at them after they could see her.

"Hasn't a lot been going on here?" Ariel said quietly after a few moments, moments in which Amanda and Finn slowly realised what they'd just seen.

"She's real…" Amanda whispered as one of Ariel's wings brushed against her leg.

"Very much so…" Ariel said before noticing the paint. "That isn't…"

"It's a… stage act of sorts." Finn replied with a quiet tone.

"Oh, I know… It's more interesting to watch your angel than all those nativity plays. They're lovely things to see all the little ones getting involved but come on, the story's well over 2000 years old now." Ariel responded, looking over as Amanda absentmindedly touched one of the wings, lightly holding a feather between her fingers… part of both her and Finn was refusing to fully realise that Ariel was really there, that real life really did coarse through those wings.

But they were starting to… and Ariel could see it.

Ariel noticed the Samsung Galaxy s6 nearby when it rang, seeing Amanda pick it up and lightly bite on her lower lip for a few seconds in apprehension.

"Not liking the buzzy boxes lately?" Ariel questioned, Amanda knowing that most likely, being an angel, Ariel had little of a definition for phones.

"Just… having trouble talking to someone I've been trying to get back on friendly terms with. Every time lately, it's some kind of fight breaking out." Amanda responded as she let Seth's call go to voicemail and set the phone down.

"Friends fight… I don't think he's gonna be any happier after tonight." Ariel responded.

"With his temper, I think either a few things are gonna get broken or someone's gonna get hurt while trying to calm him down." Amanda said.

"Has that happened before?" Ariel asked.

"When I tried to break up a bar fight between him and Roman, Seth punched me right in the eye." Amanda answered, Ariel hissing in sympathy.

"Someone needs to have quite a word with him… from my side of things, that is." Ariel replied after a few moments.

 _ **Finn Balor vs Kevin Owens, ladder match for NXT Championship…**_

"This is a hell of a match but you haven't been on NXT in some time, Seth." Corey Graves said as Seth had unexpectedly joined him, Tom and Byron on commentary.

"Just like visiting an old house really, you just want to pop in the area and see how things are going since last time you were there." Seth replied, glancing around the arena.

"Well things have changed, since then and as it seems, recently… you haven't taken your focus off Mandy and she hasn't taken her focus off this match but has- oh my!" Tom said as Amanda barely dodged a flying ladder.

"You're out of your damn mind, I hope your wife makes you sleep on the couch after that!" Amanda yelled at Kevin.

"She really should watch her language." Seth said.

"He just threw a damn ladder in her direction, Mandy was observing from a safe distance!" Byron responded.

"They're taking that paint on her way too literally… and so they should." Seth said, looking back out to the arena.

"Switching gears, Owens took his eyes off the match too long and now he's been slammed against the barricade!" Corey responded as Kevin fell limp to the floor.

Forced to improvise, Finn got into the ring and climbed the ladder, retrieving the NXT Championship. The bell rang and him and Amanda hugged before reaching the backstage area as medics tended to Kevin.

"Well that takes him out of the match tomorrow…" Amanda said, Finn knowing that she was rattled about the ladder nearly hitting her and resting his hands on her shoulders before Ariel found them.

"What happened there was just… thoughtful in no way at all." Ariel said quietly.

"I don't know which writer wrote that down-" Amanda responded before all three heard Kevin yell out as he was yanked off the stretcher by Seth and thrown against the wall.

"Locker room, now." Finn said quietly before guiding both Amanda and Ariel into it. Once the door was closed, he ran back towards the fight.

"For fuck's sake, don't you read the scripts?! She got out of the way, no physical harm done!" Kevin yelled.

"That was too damn close!" Seth shouted before Finn pulled them away from each other.

"Hunter told everyone no more fighting backstage, that includes you two as well! And Seth, Mandy was a safe distance from the ring and ducked out of the way which lowered her chances of getting hurt. You really think I'd bring her out there with me if I thought any harm would be thrown at her?" Finn said, Seth turning his rage to him.

"You need to get your head working again, think before you act!" Seth yelled before storming off.

"Damn, he's really pissed now… you and Mandy sure about this, Finn?" Kevin responded quietly.

"Can't stop it now. And no more throwing weapons at her." Finn answered before leaving. He opened the door to the locker room to see Amanda shaken up and Ariel sitting next to her, Finn sitting down and pulling Amanda into his arms.

 **The next morning…**

Amanda readjusted the oversized sleep top she still had on and was looking on the WWE's media pages, seeing some of the comments below the picture of her.

' _Had a feeling neither were being responsible enough but are they even his? #Little Miss Bliss'_

' _I agree with #Little Miss Bliss, who knows who the Demon Mistress has been sleeping with! #Demand A Paternity Test, Finn!'_

' _What the hell was she thinking being out there, it's not just her safety now! #Reckless Much, Mama Bear?'_

"Damn, it's not just the crazy fangirls now." Amanda said as Finn sat down next to her and she closed out the pages before she could read more.

The atmosphere was gonna be a volatile one tonight.


End file.
